US Govt. Sole Growth Node in US Office Market) that would indicate that each office worker requires from 200 to 250 square feet of space. In this light, the implication is that the 2.5 million newly-absorbed square feet of office space translates to an estimated 100,000 to 125,000 net new additional jobs. Since office-related jobs makes up roughly one-in-five jobs, the net implied workforce gain would be from 500,000 to 750,000 new jobs. Through November, the U.S. had added 951,000 jobs since December 31, 2009. Of these, however, an estimated 307,000 were temporary workers (see the New York Times article on temporary employment), so the net new job creation was an estimated 644,000 (right in the middle of the estimated job growth implied by office absorption above). Phew—it all checks out!

Yep—we are starting to see genuine job growth—but at a very tepid pace.